Should the school have told us

[LockdownScoffer]

Hi everyone, if your Dc shared a desk (sitting side by side) with a child who is now isolating as their mother has tested positive for Corona, would you like to be informed by the school?

Not going to approach the school or anything but just seeking opinions. In my mind it would be nice to be given a heads up incase we have vulnerable people in the family and we might be asymptomatic.

Before Dc returned to school I had thought this would have been something we would have been told.

They have abided by the rules set out. Only those in direct contact need to be informed and by telling you they would have been essentially naming the child and their family.

I can see why you would have wanted to know but it could lead to people being blamed for outbreaks, which would be unfair and dangerous.

No. The child of the positive parent should be isolating from when their mum started exhibiting symptoms or got a positive test.

You don't need to know unless the child themselves is positive.

I can see why you'd like to know but no, I don't think school should have told you this. It's too much to expect school to do, and it's also not something they are in a position to share....

Going of some of the rabid posts of the COVID enjoyers on MN I suspect some parents might not look to kindly on the child that brought the plague in to school..

I think the school would be in a lot of trouble if they told you this.

Can someone point me in the direction of where it says this is the rules? I'm asking because this exact situation has happened in my DCs school and they've been sent home. The child's parents have come back positive but the child hasn't been tested.

Can completely see where you're coming from about people being blamed for outbreaks and such, but thought they could just say 'we believe ur child may have come into contact with a corona case' then I wouldn't know if it's a family or teacher or whatever.

I was also considering that the mum could be tested but her child wasn't as the child might be asymptomatic.... She could even have caught it from her child 😂
all so complicated... Thanks for the opinions😊

Contacts of contacts aren’t usually required to isolate.

Only 'close contacts', those who have spent more than 15 mins closer than 2m to someone who has tested positive, and the people they live with need to be informed.
If the child in question later tests positive then you should be informed if your child is a 'close contact' of theirs.
The bubble system doesn't mean the whole class would be told to isolate either, just the close contacts

I was also considering that the mum could be tested but her child wasn't as the child might be asymptomatic.... She could even have caught it from her child

This is entirely normal. Contacts are only tested if they’re symptomatic.

Not the school, but if I was the parent I would let others know.

but thought they could just say 'we believe your child may have come into contact with a corona case

There’s no evidence of that here though? The case is the mother, not the child.

Assuming that the mother had it before the child then the child isolating as soon as the mother developed symptoms should break the chain of transmission as they would take a little while after exposure to their mother before they became infectious.

You have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise its contacts of contacts of contacts etc of a positive test?

It's only if you have been in contact with someone symptomatic, and even then, it's only if you were in contact with them within 48 hours of symptoms starting.

Assuming that the mother had it before the child then the child isolating as soon as the mother developed symptoms should break the chain of transmission as they would take a little while after exposure to their mother before they became infectious.

Well, I guess that depends on where the mother contracted it from? If the child was there as well, the child could also have contracted it at the same time and be incubating it for longer?

However, I am going to try my best not to drive myself nuts with this stuff because otherwise I am not going to keep my sanity over the winter, and I think we all need to try and keep a bit of a level head, difficult as that may be!

I feel strongly I should not be told that kind of info. It isn't information I can act on and it isn't my business.